Source identified
Read & copy the quotation
“But now, inasmuch as the soul is manifestly immortal, there is no release or salvation from evil except the attainment of the highest virtue and wisdom.”
- Source
- Phaedo
- Date
- 4th century BCE
- Local voice
- Dialogue speaker · Socrates
- English wording
- Benjamin Jowett — Translator · from Ancient Greek
Meaning of “But now, inasmuch as the soul is manifestly…”
Near the end of the Phaedo, Socrates connects the way a person lives with the care and formation of the soul. His claim depends on an argument for immortality advanced inside the dialogue; it is a philosophical and religious position, not a scientific finding about an afterlife.
Where does it come from?
Plato, Phaedo, approximately 107c, Socrates addressing his companions after the arguments concerning the soul; Benjamin Jowett English, Gutenberg #1658. This sentence is in the dialogue proper, not the translator introduction. Preserve the surrounding conditional argument about the soul and historical belief in immortality.
Why the local voice matters
Jowett English; Phaedo; local speaker Socrates, not Plato in autobiography.
